Late entrants pay 9 lakhs to race!

The Indian horses racing, the Indian Derby, is here again. The race, which brings together people from all walks of life in Mumbai at the Mahalaxmi racecourse will see 17 horses race for the top prize of 1.8 crore. The race will be run at 5.30 pm on Sunday, February 3.

Two horses, Kolkata challenger Snowscape and local lass Winds Of Fortune have joined the fray at the last minutes after paying a late fee of 9 lakh.

The race is for fouryear-old colts (male horses ), fillies (female horses ) and geldings (castrated horses ), is run over a distance of 2400 metres.

The first running of the Indian Derby was held on Saturday, January 30, 1943. It was won by Princess Beautiful, owned by Maharaja Gaekwar of Baroda, trained by M C Patel, and ridden by jockey E Britt. Interestingly, when geldings were permitted to race in 1973, the first two horses in the Derby were Mansoor and Bade Miya, both geldings.

Trainer RR Byramji twice trained the winners for three consecutive years. He first did it with Commanche (1976), Squanderer (77) and Manitou (78 ). He followed it up with Astronomic (93 ), Littleover (94) and Elusive Pimpernel (95).